Preserving Your Digital Memories The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program A collaborative Initiative of The Library of Congress
How to Preserve Your Own Digital Materials Our photo albums, letters, home movies and paper documents are a vital link to the past. Personal information we create today has the same value. The only difference is that much of it is now digital. Chances are that you want to keep some digital photos, e-mail, and other files so that you and your family can look at them in the future. But preserving digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with. Ensure that your digital materials last a lifetime by taking steps to preserve them: p.3 p.4 p.5 p.6 p.7 p.8 Digital Photographs Digital Audio Digital Video Electronic Mail Personal Digital Records Websites page 2 www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/
Keeping Personal Digital Photographs Perhaps more than any other kind of personal digital information, photos have rich personal meaning. And photos are unique: if they are lost, the information they provide can never be replaced. You will want to keep at least some of your digital photos for a long time. Focus attention on organizing your important photos by placing them into related groups. Identify where you have digital photos Identify all your digital photos on cameras, computers and removable media such as memory cards. Include your photos on the Web. Decide which photos are most important Pick the images you feel are especially important. You can pick a few photos or many. If there are multiple versions of an important photo, save the one with highest quality. Organize the selected photos Give individual photos descriptive file names. Tag photos with names of people and descriptive subjects. Create a directory/folder structure on your computer to put the images you picked. Write a brief description of the directory structure and the photos. Make copies and store them in different places Make at least two copies of your selected photos more copies are better. One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage. disaster strikes one location, your photographs in the other place should be safe. Put a copy of the photo inventory with your important papers in a secure location. Check your photos at least once a year to make sure you can read them. page 3 www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/content/photos.html
Keeping Personal Digital Audio You may have many digital audio files with music, lectures and other sound recordings. Some of these have personal, financial or other value that leads you to keep them for a long time. You should make sure that the audio files you select for saving are in an open file format. This will ensure the greatest flexibility for future use. Identify your digital audio files Identify your audio files on computers, audio players, phones and removable media such as memory cards and DVDs. Include audio files that you manage through audio software. Decide which audio recordings have long-term value Pick the recordings that you feel are important. If there are multiple versions of important recordings, save the one with highest quality. Export the selected audio recordings If saving a few recordings, you can use the save as command in your web browser or software program to export them as individual files. If saving many recordings, check into automatically exporting them. If possible, save recordings in an open format. Save metadata for the audio files, including the date it was exported. Export the selected audio recordings Give individual audio files descriptive file names. Tag the files with information about the recording. Create a directory/folder structure on your computer to put the recordings you picked. Write a brief summary of the directory structure and the recordings. Make at least two copies of your selected audio recordings more copies are better. One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage. disaster strikes one location, your audio recordings in the other place should be safe. Check your audio recordings at least once a year to make sure you can read them. page 4 www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/content/audio.html
Keeping Personal Digital Video If you are using a camera or other device to record digital video, you are following in a long tradition of making personal and home movies. You may want to keep some of these videos for a long time. Technical file quality is an important consideration for digital video. Videos that are posted on the Web, for example, are often grainy and have less information than the original version. Save the highest quality versions of your videos along with good descriptive information about them. Identify where you have digital videos Identify all your digital videos on cameras, computers, phones and removable media such as memory cards. Include your videos on the Web. Decide which videos are most important Pick the videos you feel are most important. You can pick a few videos or many. You can save just final edited versions or you can also save unedited footage. If there are multiple versions of an important video, save the one with highest quality. Organize the selected videos Give individual videos descriptive file names. Tag videos with names of people and descriptive subjects. Create a directory/folder structure on your computer to put the videos you picked. Write a brief description of the directory structure and the videos. Make at least two copies of your selected videos more copies are better. One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage. disaster strikes one location, your video files in the other place should be safe. Check your saved video files at least once a year to make sure you can read them. page 5 www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/content/video.html
Keeping Personal Electronic Mail Like paper letters, your e-mail messages document important events, transactions and relationships. You might want to save some e-mails or perhaps many of them. Saving an e-mail involves keeping it separate from your e-mail program. This is because e-mail programs are not meant to keep information for a long time: they can change or stop providing support at any time. Identify all your e-mail sources Identify your personal e-mail accounts. Within each account, find all folders or other separate groupings of messages; include any archived messages. Decide which messages have long-term value Pick the messages you feel are especially important. You can pick a few messages or many. Save attachments that are part of the selected messages. Export the selected messages If saving a few messages, you can use the save as command in your e-mail browser or software program to export them as individual files. If saving many e-mails, investigate automatically exporting them using the email program. If possible, save messages in an open format. Save metadata for the messages, including the message header (the subject, from, to and time and date). Organize the saved messages Give individual messages and attachments descriptive file names. Create a directory/folder structure on your computer to put the saved messages and attachments. Write a brief summary of the directory structure and its files. Make at least two copies of your selected messages and attachments more copies are better. One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage. disaster strikes one location, copies of your e-mails and attachments in the other place should be safe. Check your saved e-mail and attachments at least once a year to make sure you can read them. page 6 www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/content/email.html
Personal Digital Records You probably have resumes, school papers, financial spreadsheets, presentation slides or other digital documents. You might also have digital copies of original hard copy documents such as letters, maps or family histories. Some of this information may have enduring value. For this type of information it is important to decide which documents to save. Think about different versions, such as drafts and earlier copies. Drafts, for example, can provide important details that do not appear in final versions. Identify where you have your digital document files Locate all digital document files on computers and removable media such as CD-ROMs and floppy disks. Include any of your individual documents on websites. Decide which documents have long-term value Pick the documents you feel are especially important. You can pick a few documents or many. You can pick just final versions of documents or you can also include drafts and revisions. Organize the selected documents Give individual documents descriptive file names. Create a directory/folder structure on your computer to put the documents you picked. Write a brief description of the directory structure and the documents. Make at least two copies of your selected documents more copies are better. One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage. Store copies in different locations that are as physically far apart as practical. If disaster strikes one location, your important documents in the other place should be safe. Check your document files at least once a year to make sure you can read them. page 7 www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/content/records.html
Keeping Personal Websites, Blogs and Social Media If you have a blog, website, Facebook page or other way to share information on the Internet, you also have a rich source of information that you should think about saving for the future. For this category you need to start any archiving process by first identifying what you have. You might have multiple places where you share information, and you should give consideration to them all. Identify where you have your digital document files Locate all your content on the Web, including personal websites and social media sites and services. Be sure to include current information as well as any older (archived) content. Decide which information has long-term value Pick the information that you feel is especially important. You can pick individual pieces of information or you can select whole pages or websites. Export the selected information If saving a limited amount of information, you can use the save as command in your web browser to export the website as individual files. If saving entire pages or sites, check into automatically exporting them as a series of linked files. Save metadata for your Web content information, such as site name or date created. Organize the information Give individual files descriptive file names. Create a directory/folder structure on your computer to put the saved information. Write a brief summary of the directory structure and its files. Make at least two copies of your selected information more copies are better. One copy can stay on your computer or laptop; put other copies on separate media such as DVDs, CDs, portable hard drives, thumb drives or Internet storage. disaster strikes one location, the other copy of your important web content in the other place should be safe. Check your saved files at least once a year to make sure you can read them. page 8 www.digitalpreservation.gov/you/content/websites.html